[chrisnyc75]

I don't understand all this amplifier concern regarding driving power. Just get one (I mean two) of these and you're done. Current and future Modhouse phones will require vastly more power as you know so merely add pre-amp of your choice to these mono blocks.

Output Power: 93W RMS at 256Ω - 187 RMS at 128Ω - 375W RMS at 64Ω - 750W RMS at 16Ω - 1,500 W RMS at 8Ω - 3,000 W RMS at 4Ω - 6,000 W RMS at 2Ω

Output Voltage: 320 V peak-to-peak 113 V RMS

Output Current: 400 A peak

Price: Don't ask.

Weight: 570lb/258Kg per block.

Also available in black.

lol why didn't we all think of that? It seems so simple now that you say it.

 

[Audio Addict]

Before I tried to order the DS from Modhouse, I tracked down a DS from Ray Samuels Audio so I'm set if I ever get Modhouse's DS.

 

[Cecala]

That thing is 570 lbs per block. How am I going to get 2 of that into my house or up the stairs?

We need a new category for these cans too. We can’t call them headphones since we can’t even use headphone amps on them. They should be called “Earspeakers”.

I believe Stax owns the trademark on 'Earspeakers'. Regarding the little weight issue, you only need to do it once. The weight is not the real problem, building your own private sub-station outside might be costly.

 

[psy472]

I believe Stax owns the trademark on 'Earspeakers'. Regarding the little weight issue, you only need to do it once. The weight is not the real problem, building your own private sub-station outside might be costly.

don’t remind me. I just had my electrical panel all changed and it costed me a cool 20k. That plus building a new garage makes it 100k usd just this year.

 

[Slackaveli]

Graph Comparison.

oh, wow, what a plot! more bass than both, less mid hump than Caldera, Susvara-like vocals but less bright? sign me up.

 

[Cecala]

Looks very promising. I'm very curious as to why word of a closed back variant has not appeared. I know, I know, Ryan is somewhat busy building the open back although somewhere in the vast background there should be some mingling thought of a closed back in his mind.

 

[psy472]

Looks very promising. I'm very curious as to why word of a closed back variant has not appeared. I know, I know, Ryan is somewhat busy building the open back although somewhere in the vast background there should be some mingling thought of a closed back in his mind.

Likely much harder to design a closed back version of the planar cans.

 

[Slackaveli]

I'm running balance my SMSL SU8s into the S17, so it should get the 4v into it. I'm also hearing that the Mjolnir 3 can run tungstens really well and it only gets to 2w at 32 ohm and 1w 300ohm balanced, so it might be possible to run the tungstens from my S17, tho I'm not expecting 100% performance from them out of this amp being realistic. Maybe down the road I'll get a MJ3 once I save some money and get my desktop situation in order.

Fiio K9 Pro ESS also gets 2.1w @ 32ohm and 1.1w @ 300ohm. I also see in balanced output as a dac or dac+preamp it's 5v.
Sounds like a possible to me. Anybody tried a K9 Pro on Tungstens? I could add something to the stack with that 5v dac+preamp obviously, but it sounds like it might be good as a stand alone.

 

[Erick Muller]

I believe Stax owns the trademark on 'Earspeakers'. Regarding the little weight issue, you only need to do it once. The weight is not the real problem, building your own private sub-station outside might be costly.

or your own private thermo-nuclear plant to power those amps

 

[Slackaveli]

SOOOOO, Fellaz.... Where does the Kara fit in this madness? https://www.schiit.com/products/kara

Headphone, X1 Gain
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 1W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 1W RMS per channel (yes same as 32 ohms)
SNR: >123db, unweighted, referenced to 2V RMS
Crosstalk: >-90dB
Output Impedance: 0.25 ohms

Our exclusive differential Nexus stage usually runs on +/-17V or so. Great stuff. But Kara’s +/-32V rails are insanely over the top, giving it the capability of swinging near 100V on the differential output, and contributing to the best-performing, best-measuring preamp we’ve ever made—near -120dB THD+N from balanced.
fully discrete, solid state preamp running on 64V rails—something so over the top that the likes of this haven’t been seen for 30+ years

 

[psy472]

SOOOOO, Fellaz.... Where does the Kara fit in this madness? https://www.schiit.com/products/kara

Headphone, X1 Gain
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 1W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 1W RMS per channel (yes same as 32 ohms)
SNR: >123db, unweighted, referenced to 2V RMS
Crosstalk: >-90dB
Output Impedance: 0.25 ohms

Our exclusive differential Nexus stage usually runs on +/-17V or so. Great stuff. But Kara’s +/-32V rails are insanely over the top, giving it the capability of swinging near 100V on the differential output, and contributing to the best-performing, best-measuring preamp we’ve ever made—near -120dB THD+N from balanced.
fully discrete, solid state preamp running on 64V rails—something so over the top that the likes of this haven’t been seen for 30+ years

Kara is a very low feedback speaker preamp with a side job as a headphone amp.

 

[Slackaveli]

Torq added the Mod House Tungsten to his data.. some good reading/reference here.. https://headphoneresource.com/

this tool answers every question.
For ~$500 its the Topping A70, or triple that for the Violetric.

 

[psy472]

this tool answers every question.
For ~$500 its the Topping A70, or triple that for the Violetric.

It’s not just about power measurements. You gotta demo it or wait for reviews to see if the gears work well together.

 

[dl95]

this tool answers every question.
For ~$500 its the Topping A70, or triple that for the Violetric.

It is useful but a lot of the data is estimated and not entirely accurate. Some of the numbers are way off from what they actually are. Even the manufacturer provided numbers are to be questioned because not every manufacturer has the same criteria for the tests.

 

[mfgillia]

Kara is a very low feedback speaker preamp with a side job as a headphone amp.

Seems like the Kara is becoming increasingly popular with those who use it with speaker amps like SGP1 and AHB2 to drive their Tungstens.

The headphone output by itself though evidently can't drive this headphone very well.